Today, a subscriber can manage such services in two ways: by calling an operator and asking for the service to be activated or deactivated or by pressing a combination of keys on the telephone. Both these ways are perceived as cumbersome by many subscribers. The key combinations are often long and hard to remember, and the lack of guidance to the subscriber causes mistakes or scares the subscriber from even trying. The complexity of the user interface also limits the number and flexibility of the services that can effectively be used.
Universal Personal Telecommunication (UPT) is a concept for assigning a personal telephone number to each individual through which a person can always be reached regardless of his or her location. Logic functions in the network direct any incoming call to a telephone where the subscriber is currently found. The service works between different types of network, such as the Public Services Telephone Network (PSTN) and mobile networks. UPT is normally implemented in an intelligent network, but may be implemented in any kind of telecommunications network.
Other examples of services preferably implemented in an Intelligent Network (IN) are call forwarding, call waiting and screening of calls.
There is no standard for the design, management and execution of services in intelligent networks or other telecommunications networks today. Therefore, such services are based on proprietary solutions or on programming languages that have to be compiled directly for one host computer. Therefore they cannot be moved between different kinds of equipment. There is no standard programming language, no standard format for transferring service logic to the SCPs and no standard interface for managing services. All these factors for design, deployment and management of services in an intelligent network also depend on the service vendor.
This creates a number of problems for the telecommunications operators and for the subscribers:
Because many solutions are proprietary, the codes for activating or changing services may vary between different vendors' equipment. Also, it is difficult for the telecommunications operator to combine equipment from different vendors.
As the environments are so specialized, it is difficult to modify services. With the priorly known solutions, it is impossible for a subscriber to design or modify his/her own services.
The service mobility is poor. Automatic activation of services must generally be done from the subscriber's own phone.
The service profile of a particular subscriber cannot be moved to another operator if the subscriber wants to change.
WO 95/34980 describes a customized telecommunications service where a service provider or a system vendor can provide and modify services tailored according to the customers' needs and wishes. The network comprises a number of service shells, each relating to a particular service. A service shell contains basic logic for the shell and customization points in which services may be added by a system vendor or modified by a service provider. The subscriber is able to fine-tune the service for his or her own purposes. ISDN is suggested as a network for the input of user data. U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,452 discloses a system and method for creating and modifying intelligent network call processing in a visual environment. No network solution is suggested.
Thus, there is a need for a network solution for the design, deployment, management and execution of services. To be useful to as many people as possible the network and the cost for connecting must be kept as low as possible. One way of achieving this is to use existing network resources and terminals where possible.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method for service management in a telecommunications network which to as great an extent as possible uses existing network resources and terminals.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a method and a network in which it is easy to design, deploy, manage and execute services for subscribers in a telecommunications network.
It is another object of the invention to create a service network which is flexible, yet easy to manage for a subscriber.
It is another object of the invention to obtain a standard for creating service programs which can be executed on different types of equipment.
It is still another object of the invention enable management of services independently of the subscriber's physical location;
It is yet another object of the invention to achieve service portability, including enabling a customer to move his or her services to another operator.